


Found Peace in Your Violence

by notyouranswer (gorgeouschaos)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: A few references to Drake, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe Where Andrew Joined the Bratva, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Organized Crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gorgeouschaos/pseuds/notyouranswer
Summary: In the beginning, there’s a brother Andrew never wanted but would do anything for, and there’s the mother he always wanted, and there’s Drake.(There’s a boy named Vas who sees Andrew’s black eye and says, “I know someone who can help you with that.”There’s clandestine meetings with a man named Maxim who looks Andrew over, eyes lingering on the black eye, and says, “Kill the bastard and we’ll take care of it.” When Andrew asks what it’ll cost, Maxim just smiles and says, “You’re too smart-- and too desperate-- to ask that question, Andrew.”And he is.)
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 91





	Found Peace in Your Violence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [notyourwifey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/notyourwifey/gifts).



> Title from Silence by Marshmello and Khalid. Written while sleep-deprived-- hopefully I got Andrew and Neil right.  
> Inspired by a post I can't find that talked about how the reader was certain that Andrew was in the mob. Gifted to @notyourwifey, who introduced me to AFTG.  
> Thanks for reading, hope you like it, and I love feedback!

Here’s how it starts: a golden-haired teenager with a bloody switchblade and a fresh tattoo standing over a dying monster.

Wait. No, that’s not it. 

Here’s how it ends: a golden-haired man standing over a dying monster with a gun in his hand.

No, that’s not it either. Let’s try again. 

It starts with a boy who refused to ever beg again. It ends with a man who will never have to. 

In between, there’s Neil.

In the beginning, there’s a brother Andrew never wanted but would do anything for, and there’s the mother he always wanted, and there’s Drake. 

(There’s a boy named Vas who sees Andrew’s black eye and says, “I know someone who can help you with that.”

There’s clandestine meetings with a man named Maxim who looks Andrew over, eyes lingering on the black eye, and says, “Kill the bastard and we’ll take care of it.” When Andrew asks what it’ll cost, Maxim just smiles and says, “You’re too smart-- and too desperate-- to ask that question, Andrew.”

And he is.)

Then there isn’t Drake anymore-- and no Cas, either. Not outside of Andrew’s head, anyway. There’s just a brother Andrew never wanted and has killed for, a dead body, and an organization that would kill Andrew if he left.

Andrew meets Katarina on a Thursday. If there was anything left within him capable of fear, he would have felt it in the presence of the woman who runs the branch of the Bratva along the eastern seaboard. As he is, he just shakes her hand and asks her to pay for Aaron’s rehab. 

All Andrew has to do in exchange is explain to some local cops why investigating certain cases would be a bad idea. 

Aaron and Nicky ask where the money came from, of course, but he shuts them down hard. 

They ask again when Andrew nearly kills five men but gets off with community service. Andrew tells them not to question the leniency of a judge and goes outside to smoke. 

Katarina gives Andrew responsibility for Kevin Day when the Exy star shows up broken. Andrew considers refusing, but he knows what he owes the Bratva, and besides, Kevin is desperate enough to make promises that might be interesting. 

Katarina has Neil’s background check run for Andrew. 

Andrew picks Neil up from the airport. He waits until Neil is inside the car and the doors are locked to say, “I knew you were trouble, Nathaniel Wesninski.”

Neil blinks precisely once. His blank stare is belied by the sudden shaking in his hands. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Don’t lie to me.” Andrew catches the speedometer inching to the right and lets up on the gas pedal. “I don’t care why you’re here, you’re trouble and I want you gone.”

“No.”

Andrew turns his head to look at the rabbit in the passenger seat. He’s given up on lying, then. “Where did I give you the impression you had an opportunity to say no?”

“Kill me if you want to,” Neil says. His face is ghostly white, but behind the hideous contacts his eyes are steely. “It’s not like you’re going to do anything to me they wouldn’t.”

Andrew returns his eyes to the road and doesn’t think about what it must have been like to grow up in the house of the Butcher. 

“Why are you here, Wesninski? You can’t be stupid enough not to realize they’ll find you if you stop running.”

Neil flinches at the name but shrugs. “Exy. I’ll be gone before they catch me, I just--” he struggles for words. “I want to play. I can’t not.”

 _There’s another one of them,_ Andrew realizes with dawning horror. 

“Junkie,” he says. 

Neil shrugs again. He’s still pressed into the corner of the seat, but his face has regained some of its color. Andrew guesses he’s decided Andrew’s not going to bring him to his father. “It’s all I have left to live for.”

Andrew says nothing more until they’re parked outside of Wymack’s apartment building. He made his decision the moment Neil flinched, but it can’t hurt to let the rabbit stew.

“I’ll let you stay,” he says. “But only if you agree to Katarina’s terms.”

Neil knows the name. He shakes his head frantically, badly cut hair flying over his face. Andrew’s fingers twitch with the desire to smooth it out of Neil’s face. “No. No. You can’t--”

“She’s fair,” Andrew says. “She’ll protect you, you know she can.”

“Fuck off,” Neil spits. Andrew’s eyebrows raise a little before he can stop it. “I’m done with the mob, with the killing, with all of it.”

So the rabbit has a spine after all. 

“I’m not letting you stay if you pose a threat to what’s mine.”

Neil’s face remains furious. “Try and stop me.”

“It would take about five words to the cops to do so.”

Andrew hates cops, but he’s willing to compromise to keep his family and Kevin safe. 

Andrew’s willing to do a lot of things to keep what’s his safe.

He watches as the desire to run and the desire to play go to war inside Neil’s head. 

Finally, the son of the Butcher jerks his head in a nod. 

“Fine,” he snarls. “Bastard.”

“Probably,” Andrew agrees. “On that note, let’s go see Coach.”

They iron out a deal between threats and cigarettes: Andrew will protect Neil if Neil doesn’t run and earns his keep as an athlete.

Somewhere along the line, between the third death threat and the sixteenth “fuck you”, the fluttering in Andrew’s stomach when he looks down starts to feel like the one he feels when he looks at Neil. 

Neil meets Katarina to finalize the arrangement. 

“A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wesninski,” she says, extending a hand with unpainted nails. 

“My name,” Neil snaps, ignoring her offered hand, “is Neil Josten.”

Andrew braces for a confrontation between his loyalties. He’s not sure how far he’s willing to go to keep his promise of protection to Neil, but the fact that it might match his loyalty to the Bratva terrifies him. 

Katarina throws her head back and laughs. “Andrew said you were a smart-ass. I like it .You want to take down the Moriyamas?”

Neil’s smile makes something in Andrew’s chest that he thought long-extinguished flare. 

“No one,” Andrew says, staring Riko down at the banquet with every inch of Katarina’s cold arrogance, “is touching Neil Josten. Not if they want to live.”

“Well, you are an expert,” Jean says, and oh, he’s broken in the same spots Kevin was and Andrew has no sympathy for beaten dogs that never learned how to bite their masters. “Considering what you did to the last person who touched you.”

Andrew laughs for the first time in years and walks away, Neil’s back rigid but warm beneath his fingers. 

They try to blackmail him. Katarina sends down orders to take care of Riko’s men. 

Kirill, Dave, and Andrew go out for drinks after. 

Katarina’s men spot Nathan’s as Neil is being taken away. 

Andrew kisses Neil on the back of the bus, his touch steady despite the shaking in his bones. 

_I almost lost you_ , he thinks, and Andrew isn’t sure when the thought became unacceptable but it is.

Ichirou hands Andrew the gun. Andrew smiles as he shoots Riko in the head. Beside him, Neil does too.

“To cooperation,” Ichirou says, raising a glass of whiskey in a toast.

“Boss’ll be in touch,” Andrew throws over his shoulder. Neil’s relaxed beneath his fingers, and Andrew could almost forgive Ichirou for everything because of that. 

“If you want out,” Katarina says, faux-caual, “Your Exy earnings would buy you some freedom.”

Andrew waits for Neil’s decision. He doesn’t care. Not as long as what’s his is safe. 

“Yeah, okay,” Neil says. “But first I get Nathan.”

Andrew smiles the same smile he had the day he watched Drake die and says, “ _We_ get Nathan.”

Here’s how it really ends: a runner standing over a dying monster with his fighter at his back, fingertips touching his spine.

It ends with a man who never has to beg again. 

And it ends with Neil. 


End file.
